After their excellent 2015 reissue of the BEDEMON Child of Darkness CD and LP – including limited colored vinyl editions, some still available through their site – Relapse Records is set to reissue both First Daze Here and First Daze Here Too by DC’s own hard rock and doom legends PENTAGRAM on June 17th. Out-of-print for some time now, both have been remastered and had a number of updates and changes including revised and updated artwork and liner notes.
PENTAGRAM co-founder Geof O’Keefe provides the details: “On First Daze Here, there are some notable music changes. “Foreven My Queen” now has the proper cold ending, rather than that abrupt fade-out. The pitch of “Starlady” was a tad off and that’s been corrected.
When First Daze Here originally came out in 2002, the CD had updated versions of the songs, “Be Forewarned” and “Lazy Lady,” which were PENTAGRAM’s first recordings when we’d briefly changed our name to MACABRE. Bobby had added some additional vocals and guitars to both. For reasons no one can now recall, the LP version of First Daze Here only had “Lazy Lady” but was missing “Be Forewarned.” Since the master tape of the final produced 45 versions of those two songs couldn’t be located, I used an unmixed multi-track and tried to replicate the sound of the single, and these “replication mixes,” as I call them, were only available exclusively on a bonus 7″ single that accompanied the original LP version of First Daze Here. Those two “replication mixes” are now included in the main album’s song lineup on both the CD and the LP , replacing the updated versions.
The big news is that a few years back, I was able to finally locate and purchase the master tape of the final produced mix of the 45 “Be Forewarned” and “Lazy Lady,” and these two tracks now make their first-ever appearance with these reissues. On the CD, they are included as part of the regular release on all copies as a bonus CD single. However, fans wanting these two songs on vinyl will have to get them through the Relapse website store, as they are included only as a very limited bonus 45 with certain colored vinyl editions of First Daze Here.
The twelve-page booklet has also been greatly expanded to twenty-eight pages, and includes a more detailed history, updates on PENTAGRAM (and BEDEMON) events that have taken place in the fourteen years since the original release and new track-by-track commentary.
First Daze Here Too doesn’t have any song changes, although it’s been remastered, but the liner notes have been revised and updated. However, the coolest thing is that I lobbied Relapse to revise the front cover to use the original uncropped photo which included Randy Palmer walking next to Bobby but he was removed from the original cover to focus more on the “core four” of the 70s lineup, and they agreed (see new cover image). This five-member lineup photo with Randy is also featured on a brand-new t-shirt! Check out the Relapse store for details.”
Relapse Pentagram Reissues
